Cincinnati Board Approves Pay-for-Performance Initiative

Cincinnati's public schools will pioneer an innovative plan to pay
teachers based on their performance rather than on the number of years
spent in the classroom, provided that the local union ratifies the
change this coming fall.

The school board agreed unanimously last week to a plan that would
create a five-tiered system of career levels aligned with 16 new
teaching standards, in- depth assessments, and professional
development, said Kathleen Ware, the assistant superintendent of the
44,000-student district.

"If this goes through, it will be historic," said Allan Odden, the
University of Wisconsin-Madison education professor who helped design
the system. "This is the first move off the single salary schedule for
any district in the country since 1921."

Such an effort is "the last frontier of education reform," declared
Superintendent Steven J. Adamowski. "People who distinguish themselves
will be able to rise higher, faster. For those people, it is a great
reward. For others, it is a motivator."

The plan would be phased in over five years, but it must first be
approved by a majority of the 3,200 members of the Cincinnati
Federation of Teachers, said Rick Beck, the president of the union and
its bargaining chairman. Approval of the plan is likely in September,
said Mr. Beck, who was elected president of the American Federation of
Teachers affiliate last week.

"What this does is evaluate teachers more frequently, but in a
context of standards that [teachers] had a major role in developing,"
Mr. Beck said.

Pay Rises and Falls

The new career-level approach would label beginning teachers as
"apprentices" and give them opportunities to progress to the "novice,"
"career," "advanced," and "accomplished" levels in sequenced stages at
their own pace as they met goals outlined by the district, Ms. Ware
said. Pay would be increased accordingly, she added.

Movement along the gradation would be determined through
comprehensive assessments, Ms. Ware said. Teachers would complete
self-assessments, prepare portfolios of their work, and be observed
working in the classroom by the principal and a teacher-evaluator on
six occasions, Ms. Ware said. Teachers would be given ratings from 1 to
4 on each of the 16 standards. Depending on the scores, they would move
up, slide down, or stay at the same level.

Educators would receive comprehensive evaluations two years after
they were hired and three years after advancing to novice. Those who
had reached the career, advanced, and accomplished levels would receive
comprehensive reviews every five years but could request them as often
as annually should they want to move on to the next level of
achievement.

Educators whose ratings slipped enough to place them in a lower slot
would have one year to improve before their pay was cut, Ms. Ware said.
Any teacher who graduated from novice status but later returned to that
category and remained there for more than one year would be fired, she
said.

In addition, educators who did not move out of the apprentice
category within two years or the novice level within five years would
not have their contracts renewed, Ms. Ware said.

Principals would provide one-hour annual reviews in years when
comprehensive reviews were not given, Ms. Ware said. Teachers would be
building their portfolios at that time.

Such changes are markedly different from the current system, in
which teachers are observed for one hour each year by principals and
graded as either "satisfactory" or "unsatisfactory," Mr. Odden
said.

'Meaningful Evaluation'

One-time bonuses of up to $1,000 would be paid to educators who
demonstrated proficiency in professional- development courses sponsored
by the district, Ms. Ware said.

Teachers with dual licenses in academic-content areas, special
education degrees, or certification by the National Board for
Professional Teaching Standards would be able to add $1,250 to their
base salaries.

No bonus pay is currently given in the district.

The new plan wouldn't immediately increase the district's budget
because salaries would be redistributed rather than increased, Ms. Ware
said.

As more and more teachers rose to the accomplished category, though,
the district would have to pay higher salaries, she said.

The budget for teacher salaries would likely increase by $3.5
million annually within eight to 10 years. The district spent $150
million on salaries this school year.

Under the plan, accomplished teachers with bachelor's degrees would
earn $60,000 to $62,500, Ms. Ware said. Teachers with 26 years in the
system now earn $56,200, the highest level of compensation in the
district.

Support for the plan is nearly universal because teachers spent so
much time helping devise the policy, Mr. Odden said.

The Cincinnati Teacher Evaluation and Compensation System was first
discussed in 1997, when union and district leaders formulated a teacher
contract mandating that new standards and a salary system be explored,
he said.

The teacher-evaluation system was field-tested in 10 schools this
academic year with few complaints, Superintendent Adamowski said.

"The comment I've heard most frequently is that it is a meaningful
evaluation, in contrast with the kind of evaluation we've had
previously," he said.

The only difficulty Mr. Beck anticipates is the subjective nature of
the teacher evaluations—a problem that would likely be
eradicated, he believes, by providing adequate training for
evaluators.

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